Zoom Link It has been estimated that indigenous Mexicans consume about 300 species of edible mushrooms country-wide throughout its eight climate regions, one of the most climate diverse countries in the world. All of Mexico’s climates are found in the Southern State of Oaxaca.
Despite its inclusion geographically in North America, the country of Mexico is quite foreign when compared to the US and Canada in its attitudes toward mushrooms and mushroom foraging. The difference, even more pronounced in Oaxaca, is more than just a language barrier, though that plays a significant role: despite Spanish being the dominant language, there are more than 15 official languages and dozens of dialects spoken throughout this state alone.
More than half of the political regions in Oaxaca are self-governed autonomous democracies. This governance naturally extends into a sustenance-based relationship to the land itself–land that has been continuously occupied in some places by the same people for over 12,000 years. There are no mushrooms picking permits: nothing can be removed from the land–nor even access granted–without express permission of the community.
In this presentation, Chef Zachary Mazi attempts to tackle the barriers in understanding this delicate relationship, and discuss the intricate web of food-life-forest-community that underlies the unique management of these diverse and incredible ethnomycological regions whose wisdom holds so much potential for learning for the rest of North America.
Biography: Classically trained in French culinary education, and raised in New American and Pacific Northwest kitchens, Chef Zachary Mazi presents imaginative experiences in the culinary and mycological world, bringing people together through love of food and community. He hopes to inspire other though entertaining lectures and fusion-powered view of regional cuisines.
Launching into the world in 2020, he unexpectedly spent the first year and half of the pandemic in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he lived, cooked and foraged with his fiancé Kimberly. He now lives in Oaxaca, Mexico, where he is involved with local indigenous communities to explore sustainable community-supporting mycotourism. He is the owner of The Fungivore, an aspiring author, mycophagy researcher and performance poet. Follow his adventures on instagram at @the_fungivore.
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The Fungivore is the culmination of over two decades of foraging, gathering, studying, lecturing on, researching, and loving mushrooms and fungi.
NAMA‘s Mycophagist‘s Kitchen is committed to the delicious, safe, and interesting preparation of wild and cultivated mushrooms. We offer programs in mushroom cookery and preservation which draw from a wide variety of ethnicities and styles.
Instagram: World cuisine, poetry, music & mushrooms. Globetrotting Oregon Native. Mushroom Chef: @the_fungivore
This event is NOT sponsored by MSSF.
Please go to the link below for more information from the group who is hosting the event.
Third Wednesday, October through May more info...
On the third Tuesday of each month from September thru May, the Mycological Society of San Francisco hosts a General Meeting open to Members and the public. The Society has maintained our schedule of events using electronic media, Zoom, to meet and share our mission to educate about the kingdom of Fungi.
